“Every story we read finds a place within our psyches and helps us become the person we are.”
Hello camerados near and far!
I write to you on my porch. It's is over 80 degrees. I am wearing shorts and have decided maybe there is a god after all. Who else had a rough, never-ending winter???
This post is a shout-out to two incredible women that I've been working with over the past several years as a coach and colleague. I hope it acts as a source of inspiration for those of you who keep thinking to yourself, Will it ever happen for me?
I've been having all kinds of interesting conversations with the writers I work with lately, and my author buddies, and my agents. It's a weird time in publishing, no doubt about it. Don't even get me started on AI! If you feel like you need a break, I hear you. But I know some of you are out there slinging ink and forging ahead because you have a dream and a goal, dammit.
The thing I'm most interested in working on with writers isn't getting published, but getting published or agented is a nice by-product of the work we do. I can't guarantee that. And no matter how good you are, you can't guarantee it, either. My goal is to use your writing and your writing practice as a springboard into fully embodying the most alive, connected, tapped-in version of you. And, if you're a writer, it's likely going to happen through writing. I don't know about any of you, but I'm a miserable wretch to all if I'm not writing. Whether or not it's published. I have to write or the world suffers. My cat and husband will both attest to this.
Michelangelo said, "I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free."
I do that with my own books, sure, but I like to do that with writers, too. I like to see past the inner critic, the fear, the scarcity, the comparison...all the muck that gets in the way of our creativity and our purpose. I see that angel in the marble - you, beautiful writer. And so, together, we carve. We set you free.
We trust that the blocks will yield through our careful attention to your inner landscape and the way your whole life intersects with your desire to tell stories.
Frankly, I don't care all that much about publishing. I've never met a published author who is happy, who feels like it's enough to have at least one book out in the world. But I know how much it can mean, to see your name in lights, so to speak. The sense of accomplishment and personal authority is real. But I also want to live in a world where we as writers don't need anyone else to tell us we're good or worthy. Is there a way to believe it regardless of what happens? And is there a way to believe it while at the same time moving towards our goals?
Below are two writers who did the work. The grueling, endless inner work of befriending their critic, allowing themselves grace, believing in their talent (and they have loads), and refusing to settle.
Both came to a place where their worth was intact regardless of whether or not they landed the agent or the book deal. And their good opinion of themselves was worth more than an editor or agent gracing them with a contract.
The Six-Figure Book Deal
I can't tell you this writer's name because their deal isn't announced yet, but I can tell you that they are incredibly talented and that I had the great fortune to work with them for several years on a single book that is gorgeous and bingeable as hell. I read the first pages years ago and was IN. A voice for the ages. A world I wanted to hang out in forever. Writing that, if you broke it into pieces and drizzled chocolate over it, wouldn't be out of place in a Parisian candy shop.
But the plot wasn't working.
Fast-forward through loads of re-writes, years of hand-wringing, ping-ponging from joy (yes! character is fully realized!) to despair (that ending, tho). The emails and voice mails and texts and calls and track changes. The monumental effort of unlearning false stories about yourself.
The hard work of taking your inner critic to tea, splashing in a drop of whisky, and have a real come-to-Jesus meeting with them.
The rejections. The fear that it might never happen. The almost-maybe-NO. The pandemic. The giving up. The returning. Landing that new, awesome agent with the book - a hail Mary round of submissions that hit someone's sweet spot. Going out on sub. Getting rejected. Nice rejections. Again, again, again. What if it's never going to--
And then, I get a voice message: The book, this beautiful book, sold at auction for six-figures. For ONE BOOK. That's how good it is.
The week before this deal happened, though, we were on a call, playing out the possible scenarios. If they were offered a very small deal, with a small publisher, should they take it, even if their dream was go big or go home? We looked at all the possible ways things could go, how it felt in the body, how it matched up with all they've learned about themselves through writing this book, this book that is their teacher.
I won't tell you what they decided about that, but, either way, my girl got the unicorn dream.
It doesn't happen for everyone. It might not happen for you. But the badass, take-no-prisoners writer and human being you become when you allow yourself to dream, when you actually put in the work to be as good on the page as possible, and to do the hardest labor of all - knowing how to live and work with all your fears and manage to write in this dumpster-fire of a century....that's what it's about. For me, anyway. The book deal is the cherry on top. But all her effort, that beautiful book that she ended up with and was so proud of before the deal ever happened? That's the sundae.
The Madeline Miller of YA
Deborah Crossland is a thousand times smarter than me and I want to take all her classes. Who gets a Phd in Mythology with an emphasis in depth psychology and then weaves myth into YA like Circe at her loom? THIS WOMAN.
I had the great honor of working with Deb as she was crafting her upcoming novel, The Quiet Part Out Loud. Oh the conversations we had about that book, and the way she took all my Writing Bingeable Characters advice to heart! A+ student in Character, this one.
Before her super awesome agent picked her up, before her incredible book deal with S&S (and other exciting things I'm not allowed to mention) we did some dreaming about who she wanted to be as an author in the YA space. Imposter Syndrome is for real, especially for writers and perhaps even more so for scholars. So she got a double dose.
I asked her, what if she were the Madeline Miller of YA? We're both obsessed (and if you aren't yet, get thee to a library because WHOA MAMA). It seemed like a no-brainer. A feminist doctor of mythology telling ancient stories in fresh new ways for young readers?
I remember Deb lighting up - her voice was so excited and there was that aha! feeling. But then: wasn't that too audacious?
How could SHE be the Madeline Miller of YA? So that became our task: how to answer that question, and carve that dream out of stone and into reality. There was no set thing that would make her the MM of YA. It was about an orientation towards this identity and growing a sense of worthiness from a seedling to a full-fledged tree, dryads included. It was about all the little steps and the things that no one would ever recognize or know about.
This week, I feel like she got there. It's one thing to write a book that is inspired by myth. Arguably, there are many who have tried.
But Deb brought together her badass scholar self, her professor self, her writer self, and her YA self all together to write this article that just ran in Publisher's Weekly.
It begins with her bio - you read this and tell me she isn't the Madeline Miller of YA:
Deborah Crossland has a PhD in mythological studies with an emphasis in depth psychology. She teaches English and mythology at San Joaquin County Delta College in Stockton, Calif. Her debut YA novel, The Quiet Part Out Loud, a contemporary retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth with a feminist bent, is due out in June from Simon & Schuster. Here, Crossland reflects on why book bans hinder teens most of all by denying access to stories that reflect their shifting identities and the issues they face.
Am I bragging? HELL YES. This is what happens when you let yourself believe that you have something to say, that other people might want to hear it, too. This is what happens when you say the quiet part out loud.
Read Deb’s article here. Click on the book to learn more!
Here are a couple ways to work with seeing your angel in the marble and carving until you set them free....
1. Write your fancy-ass bio. You can use Deb's as an example. Write the bio even if you have yet to achieve the things you want in that bio. Put that bio above your writing space. Then: baby steps.
2. Give a fake interview to your favorite publication. This is a big exercise I give all my writers, especially when they're working to take up space. (One of my writers is currently a little intimidated by The Paris Review interviewing her, but she's working on it). You can talk about how you never thought it would happen, but then....Or talk about how you got unstuck on the book you're currently stuck on. Talk about your influences, how you overcame the haters, or your writing process. I have been giving fake interviews my whole life. It's pretty surreal and magical when they stop being fake.
3. Do the Be/Do/Feel/Already Have exercise on the portal. All magic happens with intention. You gotta mean it. The great thing about this exercise is that you'll realize you already are and have everything you want. But you're always allowed to super-size it! (Not a subscriber? Here’s the link to my free newsletter, and you’ll get instant access).
Are you ready to roll up your sleeves?
This kind of work takes time. A creative season with me can be a good start. Or a manuscript critique if you think you're ready for that. And if that's not available to you, finding at least one true blue writing partner can make all the difference. It's not for nothing that both of these women have solid CPs and community. It does, indeed, take a village.
Here's to you and your angels in the marble!
